Enrie caught her breath. It was one thing for Olisama to be rude and unbearable to a small group of first-year students. But what she had just done… “My cousin, the unfortunate Student Olimmosamyimosama—”

Falivia cut her off with a hand. “She obviously does not speak for you, Enerenarie, and I am willing to accept that she doesn’t speak for the royal family, either. I’ve never heard anyone of the royal family be quite that rude outside of a battle.”

“There could be a battle here,” Piadro grumbled. “Especially if she wants to repeat those words again.”

This could be something rather worse than bad. But it could also manage to not turn into a diplomatic incident, if anyone here exhibited a bit of sense. Enrie looked at Falivia. The older girl raised her eyebrows. Enrie responded with a similar expression and, before Olisama could get another stupid word in edgewise, aimed a question at Falivia. “Should we assume then that Piadro doesn’t speak for the Cevati Bitrani, or that he does?”

“What?” Piadro glared at her. “What are you talking about?”

“We’re in the unfortunate circumstance where I would really like to break Olisama’s nose myself, but, unless she transgresses again, I feel that I must defend my family from attack. If this is just, oh, something between two people that had a bit of a disagreement, then I can keep walking.”

“I can count, and I can see the differences in scale between Piadro here and yourself.”

“Oh, so you know them by name, now? All the little Byitties?”

Enrie made a show of looking up, up, up at Piadro. “Those aren’t words I’d use to describe this man.”

He smirked down at her. She didn’t blanch.

“Well, I don’t know what your problem is, but it’s clear you have quite a few of them.” Olisama was still acting like she was the one being wronged here, huffing indignantly and sticking her nose up like this whole place stank. “No royal should be frightened of just one Byittie.”

Enrie let that hang for a moment, to see if anyone else was going to point out all the ways that Olisama was wrong. Nobody said anything; it must be her turn. “There is a difference between being frightened of one person and being aware of a potential diplomatic incident. If the Enclaves and the Palace start going at loggerheads…”

“What are you talking about? You ridiculous twit! You’re just trying to take the pressure off of your own stupidity.”

Enrie had had enough. She threw up her hands and stared at Olisama. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you could be causing right now? Or how much trouble you’re in?”

Things are calming down, actually. Hotheads are most dangerous when their friends don’t watch them well. This is likely to come to some sort of agreement on “disregard the two idiots”, and “we’ll stop them from being idiots if we can”